


Postcards From the Edge (Of the Hellmouth)

by metaphasia



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 03:53:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metaphasia/pseuds/metaphasia
Summary: Buffy and Faith never really got along when Faith first came to Sunnydale, their relationship had been filled with misunderstandings, and they had both been too damaged to work through them. Afterwards, after all the death, and bloodshed, after the coma, and the body swapping, they finally had the chance to start to build something between them.
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2019





	Postcards From the Edge (Of the Hellmouth)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [impertinence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/impertinence/gifts).

Faith looked up in surprise as the package landed in front of her, and began to open it. It was mail day at the prison, the first one since she had started her term here. She had certainly not been expecting to receive anything in the mail, let alone something so large.

“Somebody out there must really like you,” Janine said, as she came over and sat down at the cafeteria table across from her. Faith had made a bit of an impact in her first few days, and most of the other inmates avoided her when in the common areas. Janine was also in for murder (though in her case, it had been an abusive ex who had come after her, and Faith personally thought Janine's case was a lot more justified than her own was) and the two had become sort of friends in the three weeks Faith had been here.

“What makes you say that, Jay,” Faith asked. This other woman had been teaching Faith some of the ins and outs of life in the big house, and while Faith still wasn't at the point where she was willing to admit that she needed help from other people (hell, who was Faith kidding, she was awesome, she would never need other people's help), but having her explain how things worked on the inside was certainly smoothing things over for her.

Janine gestured at the stack of cigarettes and stamps that had been in the box she had received. “This is a maximum security facility, Faith. Only things we're allowed to receive are stamps and cigarettes. And that, right there? That's the maximum allowance we're allowed to receive. There's only a handful of people who get full allotments every month. Most of us don't have someone outside who cares enough.”

Faith looked down at the contents of the package she had received, and felt confusion run through her. She hadn't thought that anyone out there really cared about her, and the idea that she was one of the people in this prison who was most cared for was completely foreign to her.

\---

“Lehane!” The guard shouted, and slammed a package down in front of her.

It had been five months of imprisonment for her, and for five months straight she had received the same package every month. At first, she had thought they had come from Angel, hopped up on his redemption kick. But when she had asked the guard, and discovered that they were from familiar address on Revello Drive in Sunnydale, she had been shocked. Buffy was pretty much the last person she had expected to be mailing her anything, let alone monthly care packages (the cigarettes were a bit of a shock too, given her goody two shoes nature, but considering they were all she was allowed to send, a bit less surprising). And even more shocking to her than the fact that Buffy had sent her anything at all was that it was so consistent, that she continued to send them month after month.

Faith had finally cracked, and wound up using one of the stamps for its intended purpose and mailed her a letter over the summer. Until then, she hadn't had much use for them other than as currency to trade around the prison for favors (The cigarettes, she had mostly kept for herself). Faith had had to know why, why Buffy was sending her anything.

This time, Buffy had included a short note in response as well.

Because the alternative is unthinkable.

PS – Met Dracula.

Faith snorted at the footnote, and quickly began writing out a reply, demanding more details.

\---

“Lehane, you have a visitor,” a guard said, walking into the yard.

Faith was a little surprised to hear that she had a visitor. Angel usually stopped by on Tuesdays when he visited her, and he was the only one of the LA crew that ever did. When she walked into the room and sat down behind the glass she was pointed to, she was shocked at the blonde sitting across it from her. Of all the people she had been expecting, Buffy was the last one. Despite how regular she had been at sending packages at first, she had suddenly stopped a couple months back. It had taken Faith by surprise, since they had seemed to finally be on somewhat good terms. They had been mailing back and forth to each other on a somewhat regular basis, and had been in the best position they had been in for maybe ever when … Buffy suddenly stopped. No explanation, no reason.

Faith sat down hard and picked up the phone. “Hey B,” Faith said into it, and waited for her to respond. It wasn't the first time she been betrayed, let alone the first time by Buffy, and it still hurt.

“Hey Faith,” Buffy said, and Faith took another look at her. Buffy seemed hollow somehow – tired, worn down. She kept staring off into the distance, like she was having trouble focusing on things.

“B?” Faith finally prompted after a moment, when it was obvious she wasn't going to continue talking on her own.

“Hey Faith,” Buffy repeated. “I came down here to tell you in person. I don't think – they said they didn't tell you before, and they should have – you deserved to know.”

Faith was seriously starting to get worried now. It was completely unlike Buffy to be so out of it, so nervous, that she couldn't finish her sentences and kept restarting.

“What happened?” she asked. “What am I supposed to know about?”

“I died,” Buffy said. “Again. There was – there was another big bad planning to end the world back in May. A hellgod, Glory. She opened a portal to her home, the hell dimension she came from. The only way ...” she trailed off.

“Was for someone to die,” Faith finished, remembering the stories she had heard about how Acathla had been stopped right before she came to Sunnydale. “Portals take a life to close, right?”

Buffy just nodded her head, not able to say the words herself. “I jumped. It closed. And, I was dead. Then, they, they brought me back. Just a little while ago.” She had trailed off again.

“So, you been dead the last few months then?” Faith asked her. “Kinda explains why you stopped writing. Thought maybe you changed your mind about me.”

Just saying the words took an effort, admitting her feelings out loud. Faith had always been the kind to keep them buried deep, where others couldn't see, where they couldn't be used to hurt her. Being in prison had given her plenty of time to think about how she processed things, especially since she kept getting put in solitary. The other prisoners had mostly learned that going after her was a Bad Idea, but inevitably every few months some new fish would decide that they wanted to prove themselves by going after her. And besides, the Slayer energy burning up inside her needed some kind of outlet, and since there weren't any convenient bikers to ride or vampires to slay nearby, yard fights were her only release. But all the time alone, with no one but herself for company, had forced her to confront the parts of her personality she would rather deny.

Buffy shook her head vehemently, and her eyes locked onto Faith's for the first time in the conversation. “No,” she said, “That's why I wanted to come down here in person. To let you know what happened. I didn't want you to think it was because – because I was abandoning you or something. Again. I don't think that – I mean – I couldn't do that again.” And as soon as she finished talking, Buffy once again unfocused, staring over Faith's shoulder.

“So,” Faith said, trying to change the topic to something lighter. “What was it like being dead? All harps and fluffy clouds, or what B?”

And as unfocused as she had been a moment before, Buffy's eyes once again locked onto Faith. “W-what?” She asked. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on B,” Faith needled her. “We both know you're the good Slayer. I'm the bad Slayer. I'm probably not getting into the good place after we bounce this world, so you gotta let me live a little vicariously through you. Was it all choir singing, or did they let you get down and dirty, do the nasty with no consequences? Cause I gotta tell you, if it was me up there ...” And Faith found herself trailing off at the intensity of Buffy's gaze. “What's wrong, B?”

“No one – none of the others think I went to Heaven. They all think – it was a portal to a hell dimension, they all think I wound up there. You're the only one who ...”

Shit, Faith thought to herself. The pain on Buffy's face reached right down into her and twisted her insides up. Faith did the only thing she could from her side of the visiting room, and put her hand up onto the glass in front of her. After a moment, Buffy responded in kind, and put her hand up as well, mirroring Faith's. They both gradually spread their fingers out in unison, the same sort of synchronization that they had had when out slaying together. They had always moved in unison, matching each other, and this was no exception. They stayed like that, not saying anything else, until the guards finally told them their time was up.

\---

They had finally found a motel with enough vacancies to fit everyone, and had pulled the bus over into its parking lot right as the sun was going down. Unfortunately, “fit everyone” didn't quite mean comfortably, and they were still doubling up in rooms. Giles had taken the bus out with Xander and a pair of the mini-Slayers to go find a grocery store to raid to keep everyone from starving to death, and the rest had spread out among the entire floor of the motel that they were checked into to take showers, and get cleaned up after the battle. Somehow, Faith had wound up rooming with Buffy – really it wasn't that surprising, considering the only other person who would have been willing to room with her was maybe Robin, and with Spike gone, the list of people Buffy was willing to share with was maybe Dawn. Faith had convinced her as they were divvying up the rooms to split with one of the wannabe's – Faith wasn't particularly in the mood to deal with Robin, and, well, she and Buffy hadn't really had a lot of time just the two of them since she had come back to the Dale.

While most of the rooms they had gotten had been two doubles, the room she and Buffy were in was one of the few that had a single king bed instead. Faith had the window open, smoking out of it to avoid getting the room too smelly while Buffy took the first shower. The bathroom door finally opened, and Buffy stepped out, wearing just a towel.

“Those things will kill you, you know,” she said, as she began to dry off and get dressed.

“Should've thought of that before you got me addicted to the things,” Faith said, stubbing her cigarette out on the sill.

Buffy spun, and looked shocked at Faith. “What? I never – I would never -” she sputtered, in denial, surprised that Faith could even accuse her of such a thing.

“Oh come on, B,” Faith said. “Don't tell me you don't remember all those care packages you sent me. Cigarettes and stamps, remember? You sent them every month. You didn't think I wouldn't make use of them? You know I sent you mail with those stamps. You kind of had to figure I would smoke too.”

Buffy flushed, red with the reminder of the packages she had mailed every month. She had never told anyone, not thinking any of her friends would be able to understand why she had done it. It had been a secret shared between the two Slayers.

Buffy finished dressing in her pajamas – all of them had stashed a go bag on the bus before they had driven it over to the high school with enough essentials, in case things went badly and they had to flee, they had learned their lessons from apocalypses past – and put her towel back in the bathroom before getting under the covers. Faith however, instead of heading to the bathroom like Buffy had expected, simply kicked off her boots, popped her belt off, skinned her jeans down her legs and got into the bed as well, dressed only in her underwear and the t shirt she had been wearing under her jacket. Buffy quickly faced away towards the wall as she realized Faith was stripping right there in the room.

“Aren't you going to shower?” Buffy asked, startled.

“Nah, I'll do that in the morning. Rather sleep in it, and get really clean then, start the day fresh, know what I mean?” Faith responded. Buffy made a noise of agreement, then Faith continued. “Anyway, 's habit. Shower time is in the mornings, y'know? Back in prison anyway. Hard to adjust.”

At those words, Buffy rolled back over to face Faith. “I'm sorry about it, Faith. The whole prison thing. I know we never really saw eye to eye, and – I never wanted you to hurt. I just – I thought I was doing the right thing at the time, trying to resolve it all instead of burying it where it could come back to hurt us later.”

The words seemed to tear something out of her. Despite all the letters they had written back and forth over the years that Faith had been in prison, they had never really talked through the incident that had landed her there. They'd talked around it, made light of it to ease the tension, but never really delved into the emotions they had felt, and it seemed as if it had affected Buffy as deeply as it had Faith.

“Why now, B?” Faith asked. “I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all for the teary heartfelt confessions part of the sleepover, but why do you want to have this conversation now, all of a sudden?”

Buffy was silent for a moment as she worked out what to say before she finally responded. “I guess … I guess because it's what you were saying before. Sunnydale is gone, the Hellmouth is closed, this is our chance for a fresh start. We wake up in the morning, and it will be a completely different world than the one we woke up in this morning.”

“So then, B, you tell me. What do you want to do with your new go at it?”

The words seemed to evoke something in Buffy, and she shifted closer to Faith. All of a sudden, the mood in the hotel room shifted, becoming charged. As Buffy moved, so too did Faith, in perfect harmony, shifting to lean over her. She would never be able to tell later what made her do it, what signal she thought she saw, if it was just some Slayer instinct or something else, but she leaned in, and kissed Buffy. The kiss started out soft, and gentle, testing the waters between them, but as one they quickly moved into each other, the kiss becoming more passionate and intense.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity they broke apart for air, and Buffy finally answered the question that Faith had posed to her before they started making out. “Maybe I just want to see who lands on top.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Carrie Fisher novel of a similar name.  
The types of gifts prisoners are allowed to receive at the prison Faith is in is based less in any reality, and more on a line from Studio 60.  
Had a little trouble coming up with the contents of Buffy's note to Faith, so I wound up cribbing the text from one of Methos' best lines from the Highlander season 4 episode, Timeless.


End file.
